Pinpoint Zero
by KrazyKaiser
Summary: He is the most deadliest weapon on battlefield: The Sniper. He wrecks terror from the shadows. Facing decisions that few of those that can confront successfully. Just like many other snipers who live by the creed of snipers, Saito Higara is no exception. A world reknown bounty hunter, how will he make an impact in the world of Halkeginia?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Familiar of Zero, or any documentaries or subjects related to Military Sniping**

**Chapter One: Unusual Summoning**

**Pinpoint Zero**

**-0-**

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière felt as if she was about to be decapitated under a thicket of social pressure. Today, all of the students in the second year at the Tristain Academy of Magic would summon their familiar, as it was the first day of spring. The days classes had since ended, and all of the second year students had gathered in Vestri courtyard to perform the summoning ritual.

Louise was now in one of the courtyards of the Academy with the rest of the second year students, standing in front of a summoning circle. The teacher overseeing the group was one Professor Colbert, a somewhat absentminded man, both balding and bespectacled. Every bit of his tall frame seemed to be made for academia.

"Is everyone here?" he asked, looking over the assorted adolescents. "Good. We shall now conduct the Springtime Summoning Ritual. Each of you shall in turn summon your familiar, and then proceed to cast the Contract Familiar spell on them."

"Uh, what if we don't like the one we summoned?" asked a boy in the back of the crowd. "Could we try again?"

"Absolutely not." Colbert replied firmly, adjusting his glasses as he did so. "Summoning a familiar is a sacred right that one does not simply do over. Beside, the familiar you summon will reflect your elemental alignment, as well as being suited to you personally."

"Now, has everybody performed their summoning?" Colbert called out to the crowd of students, running a hand over his shining, bald head. Louise preferred his teachings over the other professors, his knowledge of the arcane arts seemed as if it was infinite at times, although he could be terribly absentminded and strange smells and noises usually came from his quarters, which were separate from the rest of the teacher's living spaces for that reason.

"Nope!" A sultry voice called out from behind Louise, who stumbled forward as the owner of the voice gave her a light shove. She whirled around, coming face-to-chest with the bane of her existence, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.

Louse glared up at the darker skinned girl. She had everything Louise didn't, a large group of friends, impressive magical ability, large breasts that drew the eye of every male in the Academy, and most recently she summoned a rare fire salamander as her familiar.

"The _zero_ hasn't summoned anything yet." Kirche taunted, giving Louise a conceding wink.

Louise growled and turned away without responding, and approached the summoning circle. As she approached, she couldn't help but overhear her classmates mutter to each other. Most had simply already figured she just wouldn't summon anything, while others speculated the weird creatures that The Zero could possibly summon.

"Are you ready Miss Vallière?" Colbert asked as Louise strode past him towards the summoning circle.

Louise gave a start. "Yes professor!" she said in a somehow calm demeanor, taking one last silent breather before stepping a couple steps forward.

"_Who am I kidding?"_ She thought to herself. "_I'll take any chance I can get, not matter how unlikely."_ The mage pulled out her wand with her right hand. She took her stance at the circle, and held her arms outstretched with her wand in her right hand before chanting the following spell:

"_My servant that exists somewhere in this universe…_

_My divine, beautiful, and powerful servant…_

_I wish and desire from the bottom of my heart…_

_Heed my call and answer my guidance!"_

What resulted was exactly what everyone had anticipated: A sizeable explosion that tore up the earth, and sent dirt and pebbles raining down on everyone in the area. The smoke cleared, revealing Louise sitting on her bottom having been knocked over by the explosion, and no summoned familiar in sight.

Louise bit back the tears threatening to roll down her cheeks. Her failure had come as no surprise, but her classmates burst into laughter and teased all the same. She rose shakily to her feet, and prepared to try again.

…

"Just give it up already Zero!"

Louise whirled around, her torn and frayed cape fanning out around her. "SHUT UP FLOOD!"

"Excuse me!?" The girl in question, Montmorency Margarita la Fére de Montmorency, growled, her blond curls bouncing as she stomped her foot.

"Monmon, leave her be," Montmorency's boyfriend, Guiche de Gramont, whispered as he laid a hand on the blonde girl's shoulder. Guiche was also a blond, and wore a frilly white shirt instead of the Academy's normal collared white shirt. He was known around the Academy for his flirting and acting cool in front of the younger first year students, causing Montmorency to go into a jealous rage quite often.

Louise's latest attempt at the summoning ritual was her fifth, and from the look her teacher was giving her, it seemed it was going to be her last. Her clothes were now dirtied with soot and dirt, torn in various places to expose her milky white skin.

Most of the class had dispersed, with the permission of Colbert. The sun was now resting on the horizon, casting an orange glow on the few remaining students, which consisted of only Kirche, Montmorency, Guiche, and a short blue haired girl known only as Tabitha, who was watching the spectacle wordlessly and intently.

"That is enough Miss Vallière," Colbert sighed, worried that his student would soon fall unconscious from using all of her willpower. Judging from the way Louise was sweating, appearing slightly pale, and was having trouble standing properly, falling unconscious would come very soon.

"I have… to try again," Louise panted, falling to her knees and wiping her sweaty brow.

"And what good is that going to do Zero? If we wanted a hole dug in the middle of the courtyard we would have gotten a proper mage to do it!" Montmorency shouted from a fair distance away, out of range of Louise's explosions.

"Shut up!" Louise shouted back, her voice cracking. Tears began to spill down her cheeks as she gripped her wand tighter. She was the laughing stock of the entire school, the butt of every joke at the Academy of Magic, and this was the last straw. Louise had quickly become hysterical as she continued to fail to summon anything, twitching like a rabid animal with a maniacal expression crossing her face.

"I'll show you Flood!" Louise screamed at Montmorency, her voice cracking once again. "I'll summon the most ruthless, cunning and fearsome familiar, that'll have you on your knees begging for mercy!"

"That is enough!" Colbert interjected, looking stern and uncompromising. "I cannot allow you to do something so reckless when you're clearly about to lose consciousness!"

Louise whirled around and grasped onto the front of Colbert's long mages robes, shaking him as she spoke. "Mr. Colbert please! Once more!"

"No," Colbert shook his head. "You're only going to harm yourself."

"You have to, please! Just once more then I'm done!" Louise pleaded, more tears escaping from her eyes.

Colbert eyed her sternly for a few more moments, his suddenly piercing gaze making Louise feel like a bug under a magnifying glass. "Once more and only once more."

Louise nearly felt like hugging the man, but instead chose to turn around and take position at the ravaged summoning area. She began her chant, her voice no longer flat and mechanical like it had been before, now it was cracking with emotion.

_Founder please I'll take anything! _Louise thought mid-chant. _A blind dog! A three legged cat! A cockroach! The most evil and vile creature in the universe! _

When Louise was done the chant, an explosion came out.

"I knew it was another explosion!" one of the crowd said.

"Is everyone alright?" Colbert called out as he waved his wand to clear the smoke. "Louise, are you… okay…?"

Louise was, of course, unharmed. She was staring at her summoned familiar as the smoke was dissipating; the other students stared and Louise could not believe what had happened, yet can't understand what she summoned. Louise's frustration instantly turned into a frowned confusion as she stared down at the ground at her supposed familiar.

It was no more than a man, but there was the trick to it; it was a human topiary. Louise took a guess about the familiar being a human topiary because of the leaves, vegetation, and pines all over the person. However, the vegetation looked a little odd, though deceiving as if it was a living suit. Other than the vegetation-like suit on the man, the topiary would stand at a height of 5'9 once stood up, and there was one more thing that actually laid a more confusing background.

As lastly, there was an unusual rifle with a telescope attached to it. Most of the rifle's appearance was consisted of steel while some other parts of the rifle including the handguard, buttstock, and an unusual straight pistol grip were made from oak. Most of all, there was a handle located above the trigger that looked like a square-shaped bolt or something that replace the usual flintlock firearms.

Louise looked down at her plant-like familiar with a frown on her face. While ignoring the rest of the students staring in silence for a moment, Louise expressed a thought in her head about her supposed familiar _"I don't understand. This can't be my familiar. If it is, then maybe I'm an Earth mage after all."_

But what nobody knew about the man was that his name was Saito Higara. He was a Russo-Japanese 16 year old teenager and he didn't have any friends and the reason was sometimes because he was a loner. He didn't like other people because they are unpredictably ignorant or too much in a hurry to listen to would he wants to talk about or say to them. Higara did very well in school so much, but oddly as it sounds, he couldn't get into any school in the local area of Japan because of his criminal record; consisting of a bench warrant, illegal ownership of a weapon, 1st and 2nd degree murders with a firearm.

As the teenager seems like if he was dead, the summoned human looked up, first at the summoning grounds, then at the strangely-robed students while he was still lying prone on the grass. Seeing robes and wands and oddly colored hair, most notably the pink-haired girl directly in front of him, he rubbed his eyes with his right hand before taking his attention back. He looked up to his 2o'clock at Louise when she snapped at him "W-who are you?"

"Same thing to you." He shot back at her with the same question in a passive hostile tone but where he was just calm "Who are you? Where am I, and how did I get here?"

One minute, he'd been hiding from the Ukrainian authorities, trying to evade arrest in the dark in Ukraine, and the next he was here…wherever here was. He shook his head and began to think about or assure what all just happened so far _"Okay, calm down, you're used to this by now. You've somehow got transported somewhere by a weird little witch girl…?"_

Peals of laughter interrupted his thinking, and the summoned young man turned to see the other magical folk were enjoying the show. One student said to another "Leave it to Louise the Zero to summon a human plant."

"This makes your boasting worth it." He turned his attention to the left and saw a dark-skinned, red headed beauty that spoke next, and stared at her with almost like a blank eye expression before turning his head away in a rude manner.

He turned to face Louise back to almost his 2o'clock, whose embarrassment was mounting under the jeering from the crowd. Sympathy took the edge off his mix of feelings "Look, I just would like to know where I am, and how I ended up here, and if I can perhaps find a way back."

Louise seemed intent on ignoring him, as she turned to Colbert. "Please Mr. Colbert, let me try again!"

"Hey excuse me, I was asking a question." he rashly demanded as he got up onto his feet "What are you guys thinking you are speaking huh?"

It certainly sounded like English to him. He looked for Colbert, and his heart sank when he heard his answer. "I'm sorry, I can't let you."

"What?" Louise and her summoned human said together.

The latter pressed forward. "Don't be s-ing me sir. I don't belong here?"

"This is a sacred ceremony to determine a mage's life. Redoing it would be a desecration of six thousand years of tradition. Regardless of whether you like it or not, he has been decided as your familiar spirit." Colbert explained almost ignoring the teenager who was still confused to what was going on.

"_How f-ing great, me as a dame servant. I'm not even an animal though."_ the teenager thought to himself mostly pondered before turning to his 3o'clock and looking down at his M91 Yugoslavian sniper rifle. He crouched down and grabbed the brown leather sling of the rifle and slung the rifle on his right shoulder.

"But I've never heard of using a human plant as a familiar!" Louise exclaimed as more laughter erupted amongst Louise's dilemma.

Despite the repeated laughter of the students, Colbert took the laughter no further "I will not allow any exceptions, peasant boy or not. Continue on with the ritual."

Louise turned to the tall teenager and advised him "Be thankful for this. Normally a noble wouldn't do this with a peasant boy." She continued without giving the teen any time to reply, and closed her eyes with an air of resignation. She waved her wand in front of her, speaking as she did so.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, bless this humble being, and make it my familiar!"

She finished the chant, and reached up and touched the wand to the teen's forehead. She then, to the teen's surprise, awkwardly stretched upward and delivered a weak and chaste kiss to his lips. Louise immediately reeled back in the process of suppressing her embarrassment. The teen too was trying to suppress his embarrassment by keeping a straight face during and after the kiss.

"Very good," Colbert commented. "It seems Contract Servant had ended peacefully."

To the teen's bewildering to what just happened, he was about to demand to what just happened with annoyance before all of a sudden, a searing pain struck the top of the teen's wrist. The abruptness and severity of the pain that spread throughout his body stunned the teen for a second, and caused him to fall onto his knees. He quickly grabbed his wrist to see a set of foreign symbols slowly engrave itself down his wrist. The symbols to the teen kind of look like a combination of Hindi and Mandarin inscription to him, as the symbols took shape onto his right hand.

Saito had to admit, he didn't see expect that coming for Louise to do that. The pain grew too much for him with the mild fatigue he had after running from the Ukrainian police just moments ago. And combined with it, he fell onto the ground face first and lay unconscious from his aggravated fatigue and severe pain from the engraving of the symbols on his wrist.

**-0-**

**Nighttime, Louise's Dorm**

Saito sprang up from his sleep. He looked around the room with a confused expression. He was lying in a pile of hay other than being cloaked by his Woodland Camouflage.

"Finally you've decided to wake up." Saito quickly glanced at the voice. It was the pink haired _сука_.

_"Damn it, it wasn't a dream."_ Saito thought to himself in extreme disappointment.

She gave an arrogant sneer and walked to her armoire. "I've thought about it long enough to get an ulcer but it seems that I'm stuck with you as a Familiar. You should be honored." As she began to undress, she noticed one glaring problem as she turned back around. The door to her dorm was now open.

"WHERE DID THAT FAMILIAR GO!?" Louise roared to herself.

**-0-**

**At the same time**

Saito was walking down the hall trying to find his way outside with his Yugoslavian rifle still slung on his right shoulder. He was definitely not planning on staying here. Where ever here was, Saito knew it wasn't where he was suppose to belonged. He was glad that he wasn't just running in his regular clothing, but his ghilie suit made him stand out from the lighting of the hallway. Although behind the ghilie suit, he was dressed within matching pants, his nylon sweater, and his military boots he bought from the European black-market.

Just before he could think any further, he heard that pink girl's scream from her dorm. Saito broke out into a heart racing dash. He ran down a spiral stair case, skipping two steps at a time. When he reached the bottom, Saito abruptly stopped as he heard talking around the corner. It would be horrible if people caught him running away. No matter what he did with his ghilie suit on, he knew that he was very distinctive and stood out like a big, dame, sore thumb.

Pressing himself against the right corner of the door frame leading out onto the ground floor, he peer his head around the corner and noticed a familiar figure earlier this afternoon. This figure was none other than that blond kid; Guiche Chevalier de Gramont. But how could Saito have guessed his name so easily? Oh, well pretty obvious of his girlfriend saying his first name. Speaking of girlfriend, the girl's name was none other than Katie. She had brown hair, and brown cloths. Yet again, Saito was obviously able to know her name by simply listen to what was happening so far.

"I'm good at baking soufflés." the first thing that Saito hears as he begins eavesdropping while slowing his breathing down to calm down and be casual.

Guiche further commented "I would love to try one."

"Really?!"

"Of course, Katie. I wouldn't lie to your eyes."

"Lord Guiche!"

"There is nothing hidden behind my feelings for you." Guiche proudly said before he saw Saito passing behind Katie and running passed without a word.

Guiche further asked about Saito "Isn't that the human plant that Louise summoned?" Before Guiche could stop Saito, James was already long gone from Guiche and Katie's sight rather quickly.

"In today's ritual?" Katie added to further in trying to understand. "It caused quite a stir among the first year students as well."

Back to Saito, while still running pass Guiche and Kaite, the instant he knew that they couldn't see him anymore; he got to another room. "It's been a dream that I could be like this with you Kirche the fever. A beautiful dream." The young man said. He was clearly infatuated with the girl.

"Tonight it will end with more than just a fever." It was that red haired _сука_ again; however Saito didn't pay attention to the two, since he saw something much more important; the exit. Saito made a mad dash for and burst out the door.

Looking up into the night sky, there were two moons; one small red one, and a giant blue moon to the left of it.

"Oh my god, this isn't Earth, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Japan, or Kazakhstan." Saito said as he stared up at the captivating dual moons. The twin moons made Saito realize something very important; running from here would get him nowhere.

_"I'm stuck here for now."_ He thought to himself, before he caught an idea, _"Well what the hell? I'm a rouge sniper, I can kill these bitches with no mercy…but they are a little too young to die like me. Though, like said, what the hell?"_

Taking in consideration of his ghilie suit, Saito turned around behind him offset to the tower he exited from and found a few hiding spots. At his 1o'clock, his first hiding spot was near a loose formation of Arbor Vitae trees. His second hiding spot offset of his 2o'clock was a stretch of dirt padding that served as the trees' base. His final hiding spot in his sights was to his 3o'clock, and being his final firing position in the area he was; it was the dark archways of the passageway that connected another tower to the academy's central tower.

Before he could think of any other strategy to escape, he heard the bitches (Louise, Kaite, and Kirche) and Guiche from inside the tower chatter as they approach the door that Saito exited. Taking immediate action, he sullenly jogged to his first hiding spot and hid to the far left tree which had the most shadowing from the tower to mask Saito's positioning. He can only crouch or stand since he can't lie prone due to the wall behind him obstructing his area to lie down.

Saito crouched next to the tree and brought his M91 Sniper Rifle up just in time to see Louise and the other mages he saw exit outside. Louise went outside first and she was flanked by Guiche from behind, following with Kirche and Katie as they came out as well…confused.

"Where did he go?" Louise asked both alarmed and confused as she saw Saito nowhere in sight.

"Don't ask us," Guiche insisted imperiously, "He's a plant, so we might be treading right over him."

"STOP PLAYING GAMES!" Louise snapped towards Guiche and turned around at him.

"It's true though," Kaite defended Guiche's hunch, "Because he is a human plant, he might have the ability to morph into the grass."

"True, but what about the rifle he was carrying that afternoon?" Guiche asked trying to sum up the possibilities.

"Who knows where that living plant could be," Kirche jumped into the baffling. Saito wasn't going to hear any of their s- at this point; he now had to get rid of them…without killing them. But there was question that suddenly defied him; which person should he shoot first?

Analyzing the placement of each person from left to right, Louise was the farthest person away from the door of the tower, and Katie was the closest to the door. Guiche and Kirche were in between Louise and Kaite (in chronological order); Guiche stood in front of Katie, and Kirche stood offset in front of Guiche, but still enough to make a double kill as they stood in front of each other. All the targets were easy shots, but for only a moment after the first shot. And in order to disable at least two targets, he must choose the closest to the farthest target to achieve the shot that Saito wants.

Moving the PSO-type crosshairs on Guiche, he placed his first line of sight on him before making the 2nd shot go into Louise. Aiming towards the center mass on Guiche's torso, Saito aimed away from the center of Guiche's torso to avoid exploding his heart upon the first shot. After shooting Guiche, Saito would them focus his crosshairs on Louise and shoot her in the center mass as well, but not completely kill her. This was a tricky plan to carry out, especially if the bullets go through each victim's bodies and create a large enough cavity to cause internal bleeding, and/or (infection, heart failure, and) death. Saito knows that this was a do or die situation; shoot the mages and scare them away, or otherwise kill them if the bullets think otherwise.

Without any hesitation, he took his index finger from the top of the trigger guard and applied it back on the trigger. Once his finger was in contact of the trigger, he quickly pulled the trigger and set off the 7.62x54mmR bullet in the chamber. At 2,592ft per second, the Yugoslavian rifle bullet darted at a short distance and struck itself into the left ribs of Guiche's torso. The bullet not only cut into his central section of his left rib, but it nearly broke all the left ribs and continued going right through Guiche's front torso and tumble slightly downwards and gorged itself into the left side of Kirche's abdomen. The bullet's lodged inside Kirche's lower body before it stopped above the right rear pelvis.

Saito smirked briefly as he watched Kirche and Guiche fall to the ground. Guiche fell forward on his face while Kriche stumbled and fell on her back to the right. Saito didn't have time to watch both of his victims fall to the ground completely as he maneuver the crosshairs on Louise and aimed at her torso. However, Louise already jumped from Saito's gunshot and decided to run back inside. This threw Saito's aiming off because her torso was becoming less visible as she got closer towards the door (with Kaite already safe inside). In response, Saito followed his crosshairs slightly in front of Louise and fired a second shot, which unfortunately missed and ricochet off the stone walls to Louise's left.

With one shot making its mark and another missing its kill spot, Saito had to follow one of the most important rules of sniping; never fire more than two shots in the same spot. He took action under this rule by standing up and making a run for his final firing position. Saito didn't have time or the opportunity to run to his final firing position; he had already knocked out two targets in one shot and missed his 2nd shot on what was supposed to be his 2nd target, not his 3rd target. He continued to dash for the archways of the passageway connecting one of the other towers to the central tower. Finally, by the time he went under the archway and went into the other courtyard, he turned the around the left corner and hid next to the other tower.

From all the action that was going on, with two victims shot (not to death), Saito now had to find a way to escape now that his pursuers are weakened. Saito took a group of deep breaths as he cranked his head in the direction of the corner he turned. Without his pursuers, he now can focus on finding a way out. But there was just one problem from what he just did. Due to the loud bang of each gunshot of his Yugoslavian M91, the loudness of the gunshots definitely may have awoken everyone in the entire Magic Academy.

This means, for Saito's escape plan, he had to throw together something real quickly to escape the Academy. First, to start off for Saito, he went into deep thought about what happened that afternoon. There was no visible gate to exit from, and the walls are too high and too smooth to climb over. Though he has to do something to get out, or suffer.

So by looking around where he was, there was not a visible gate, but that all change when he made a very dangerous decision to himself. He poked his head around the corner he entered and notice something different from the tower he exited. He noticed that there wasn't a passageway connecting the tower he exited from…but then came his biggest relief for his escape; the main gate.

Just to the left of the tower on the far side of it, there was the main gate. Located and pointing directly at the central tower, Saito saw that the gate was a blunt rod iron gate. From a distance, it looked like it stood at about 2ft, but in reality up close; the gate is actually 10ft high. In order to get to reach for the gate to freedom, Saito had to come up of a way to not be seen again. He had two decisions; wait and see what happens who comes outside, or go around and exit the gate from the other tower that is located at the far left of the gate.

To play safe, Saito makes his decision instantly and go with going around. This took him about five minutes to make an almost complete loop around the academy to make it to the gate. He hadn't encountered anyone on the way and everything was just getting good so far. But by the time Saito reached the gate upon passing the last passageway connecting another tower to the central tower, there was a flock of students around the crime scene that Saito created. One of the students were attempting to lift Guiche and bring his unconscious body back inside the tower, while Kirche was holding her abdomen with blood all over her right arm and hand as she was aided back inside the tower by another student.

Saito paid no regard to what he had done as he watched the scene from a distance as he edged near the gate. He brought his attention back to himself and approached the gates. There were no chains and a lock that kept the gates locked, there was simply a keyhole on the left gate, which was an easy lock to lockpick for Saito (unlike hacking digital locks, passwords, and code panels).

Crouching onto the paved road leading from the central tower, Saito slung his M91 Sniper Rifle on his right shoulder and took out two simple tools for a simple lockpick; a bobby pin, and a flathead screwdriver. Looking over to his right back at the students, he was surprise to see that nobody saw him yet, not even Louise was present in the crowd.

Other than his crime scene, he turned back to the gate lock and went to work by putting in the bobby pin in the top area of the keyhole and the head of the screwdriver on the bottom of the keyhole. He edged the bobby pin at about 8º to the right and pushed the screwdriver to the left to turn the keyhole; it only went about a quarter of a turn before stopping. Saito moved the bobby pin at about 11º more to the right and pushed the screwdriver again; the lock didn't budge. He finally went 17º to the left instead and tried again, and this time when he pushed the screwdriver at the bottom of the lock, the keyhole turned and the left gate unlocked as it moved slightly backwards onto him.

The click of the gate unlocking was unintelligible, yet it didn't become an alert for the crowd of students near the location where Saito shot Guiche and Kirche. Saito, confidently devious and stealthily, he put the bobby pin and the screwdriver back in his camouflaged pockets, stand up, and pull the gate open a little bit more for him to sneak out. The space he opened from the gate was nearly a perfect fit as he sidestepped outside the gate. Yet there was the one thing he didn't pay attention to that gave his location away; as he exited from the left gate and turned around back at the gate, the metal buttplate of his M91 clanged onto one of the bars of the gate and shortly echoed once upon making contact. Upon hearing that single clang sound, Saito quickly pulled the gate in front of him, turned around and began dashing into the darkness of the Tristainian grassy and hilly terrain before the students arrived on the scene.

**-0-**

**Author: Well there's the end of the first chapter! Thanks for reading, if you guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave an idea in the review. Until then, farewell and take care.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Familiar of Zero, or any documentaries or subjects related to Military Sniping**

**Chapter Two: Hawk's Nest**

**Pinpoint Zero**

**-0-**

**That Same Evening, 11:47pm**

Thirteen miles northwest of Tristainia, the Tristainian River drops in close to the hillside bank and run deep and transparently blue. The water was cold though, for it has slipped twinkling over the dirt banks in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pond. On one side of the river, the narrow foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Tristainian peaks, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees - willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding; and sycamores with mottled, brown, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pond.

On the dirt bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Wild hares come out of the brush to sit on the dirt in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of coons and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.

There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores. It was a path beaten hard by the people who come down from the farms and towns to swim in the deep pond, and beaten hard by local vagrants that come wearily down from the roads in the evening to sit near the water. In front of the low horizontal limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.

The midnight of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The bleak shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the dirt banks, the wild hares sat as quietly as little gray sculptured stones. And then from the direction of the brush from the other side of the pond came the sound of quiet footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves. The wild hares look around noiselessly before settling back down. A stilted heron labored up into the air and pounded down river. For a moment the place was peaceful, until a single gunshot erupted across the pond.

The sound of flesh splashing turned the scene upside down as the wild hares fled for cover, with one of their own hares lying dead with a bullet hole wound in the center of his torso. The entire pond instantly became deadly lifeless in the blink of an eye after the hare's death. Not one animal or a bird made another sound afterwards

**-0-**

**Back at the Tristainian Magic Academy Infirmary, 11:58pm**

Guiche awoke, founding himself lying in the Infirmary, with his body shortly on fire from his gunshot wound. His wound was covered by medical bandage wrapped around his stomach, right where the bullet went into his ribs and exited. He felt sharp brief pains across his central abdomen, his broken left ribs, and his left hip.

"_I can't even get up, let alone move my torso to see what was going on." _

He managed to whisper out of himself, "Is anyone there?"

Despite the gunshot wound, the pain was manageable and it left him with enough energy to speak.

"Hmm? Oh, be right there sir!" Guiche was relieved when he heard the doctor, he could figure out what had happened to him. He had very little memory from how he got shot, but the only thing he could remember was hearing that gunshot before he fell onto the ground unconscious afterwards.

"I must've been deaf to not hear the shot, but at least I'm alive."

"Ah Mister Guiche! You're finally conscious, how are feeling?" the doctor spoke up as he inspected Guiche from the left side of his medical bed.

"My body feels awful, but I can manage it."

"That's to be expected I'm afraid, you were seriously wounded from a single bullet wound, but no infection fortunately. You have four broken lower left ribs, a lacerated stomach, and a bruised kidney. We can order a healing potion that can deal with the more serious trauma together, but given the cost; standard recovery may be the better choice."

"Earth magic therapy?"

"I can definitely do that for you, but it will take some time before you are fully healed."

"I can't afford to dishonor my family, or waste their money."

"Low level healing potions and magic only for now, when can I be back on my feet?" Guiche requested.

"Back on your feet? You're lucky to be alive right now without an infection, that bullet could've killed you if it would have been in your stomach."

Guiche ignored the doctor's warning and asked another question "In any case, when can I get moving again?"

The doctor paused for a moment, "Actually, moving and going to class will at least take a few days, and that is very conservative estimate. Fully healing will take much longer, and will drag out to nearly a month. Minor therapy to regain control to your waist will take that time plus an additional four weeks."

The doctor continued with the good news, "You will however make a full recovery regardless of what we do, the concussion and organ damage is what I am concerned with. The bones are taken care of; they just need time to heal at this point."

Guiche nodded, "Find me someone who can tell me exactly what happened."

**-0-**

**The next morning, Headmaster Osmond's Office, 7:00am**

"Yes, there are strange circumstances. You say, you didn't finish the ritual?" Osmond summarized and confirmed the situation.

"No, sir…" Louise said hopelessly while stilling looking down at the wooden floor.

"Well, you must give me time to think about what has happened, but I do think that you may get a second chance. But, right now I think you should go to your classes and begin your day." Osmand said as he stroked his white beard in deep thought.

"Oh thank you sir!" Louise said cheerfully before calming down, bowed to Osmond and left.

Even after leaving Osmond's office, Louise was reminded with a feeling of sorrow for Guiche and Kirche. They have been badly wounded last night by a mysterious gunshot and they are both in the infirmary seeking medical attention. What Louise had in mind on the good side was that Kirche wasn't in her sight to commit or drop an antic on Louise and calling her Zero. Though it didn't come without problems; Louise had got word from the infirmary that Kirche has to undergo surgery to have the bullet removed from within her kidney. To make matters worse, the possibility of an infection from the bullet was high and there was not without a chance that Kirche might die today or tomorrow if the bullet is taken out too late or improperly.

However, something caught her attention as she was heading back to her dorm to collect her notebook. As she walked to the door leading into the dormitory tower, she stepped on a metallic piece of metal under her shoe. She felt the bump of the piece of metal and she stopped in place as soon as she stepped off it. She looked down at where she stepped on the piece of metal and saw what it was; a small narrow copper cone-shaped bullet.

The tip of the cone was blunted miserably with bits of stone dust on it along with small brunt marks located at the rear of the bullet. What got Louise about the bullet was not its shape, but the way how it got there after going right through Guiche and Kirche. But that thought was immediately irrelevant as Louise noticed that there wasn't any blood on the bullet.

"_How did this bullet get here? Only one shot was fired last night."_ Louise thought to herself as she stood up and looked into the direction of where Kirche and Guiche last stood that night. She quickly made a flashback on the events of ever knowing if a second shot was fired.

**-0-**

**Flashback, Last Night**

"_Where did he go?" Louise asked both alarmed and confused as she saw Saito nowhere in sight. _

"_Don't ask us," Guiche insisted imperiously, "He's a plant, so we might be treading right over him."_

"_STOP PLAYING GAMES!" Louise snapped towards Guiche and turned around at him._

"_It's true though," Kaite defended Guiche's hunch, "Because he is a human plant, he might have the ability to morph into the grass."_

"_True, but what about the rifle he was carrying that afternoon?" Guiche asked trying to sum up the possibilities._

"_Who knows where that living plant could be," Kirche jumped into the baffling, "The rifle might have morphed with him as well."_

"_Wait," Katie argued passively, "That's not possible for a firearm to disappear like that with a humanoid plant."_

"_There has to be solutions to find him, we can't stand here talking total ideas!" Louise exclaimed in trying to end the riffraff from her peers. "He has to be here somewhere. He can't just simply disappear from out of nowhere, if he did, then he would've been gone a long…"_

_Louise was about to make her explanation when suddenly a single gunshot erupted. The sound of fast blood explosions filled Louise's ears as she saw Guiche and Kirche fall down onto the grass, with a bullet wound in their lower stomachs. Kirche tumbled onto the ground on her back, whereas Guiche fell forward and fell onto his stomach and lay on the ground unresponsive. Before she saw both of her opposing peers fall onto the dark grass, the gunshot startled Louise and caused her ears to ring a bit. She immediately had one thing racing in her mind; get inside!_

_She dashed towards the door towards Katie's direction (who jumped too and hid) in the doorway and made no room for another word to come out of her mouth. And she could've sworn to herself in this moment, as she was running towards the door, she heard a faint sound of another gunshot. The gunshot only echoed as she heard it go off again. It startled her and caused her to put her hands over her head as she ran back inside with her ears ringing with the echo of another gunshot._

**Flashback End**

**-0-**

**Back to the present**

Louise can only recall the first gunshot as echoing several times in a delayed rhythm of two to three seconds. Yet that didn't add up to the appearance of another bullet without blood. She couldn't understand how the bullet she is holding didn't get stained in blood and run into the wall to her left. Something was not right the way how there was one gunshot and it made a clean kill through both Kirche and Guiche without staining itself in blood and organs. Louise needed to find Kaite and ask her if she heard a second gunshot that night, something was off the way how a bullet came out clean after severely wounding two mages in one shot.

**-0-**

**Two hours earlier out in the Tristainian wildlife, 5:00am**

Saito was waking up early so that he could get a head start at moving through the forest. At the same time to knock out two birds with one stone, he may have more time to find nourishment and hiding spots if needed. He was sleeping near an area of brush near the dirt bank on the pond to conceal himself from anyone from seeing him if they come along unnoticeably. The tiny camp he set up with the remains of an eaten hare and a makeshift campfire were all what was left of his last activity that midnight. For his M91 sniper rifle, he had it with him and it was hiding to nearby in the brush to conceal its positioning.

When Saito woke up and stretched, the first thing he did was to destroy every trace of his camp. He kicked and swept the fire's ashes into the pond with his boots. Then, he finished off his dead hare by tying its skin into two pouches and collecting any oil that the wild morsel could squeeze out in one after he shot it last night. He was about five yards away from the pond, which he went to for water and to wash his hands from all the dried blood of the hare. Since he had no way to purify the liquid with no fire or bleach, he kept it in the other makeshift container that he crafted out of the skin of the hare.

Saito had decided that although the forest could provide him potential protection from anyone if they were chasing him; they may be accustom to or find someone who is used to the terrain of the area. He remembered that there was a road that led away from the Tristainian Magic Academy. If he knew anything about medieval life (he had to start making guesses) it must lead to a town. He may be able to find a map or get information about where he is.

His plan, if indeed he found a town, was to first find shelter and then learn more about where he is. Depending on how advanced the people of this country were, he may find short time work assisting them, then he would find a high ranking government official (or a criminal group of everything goes to hell). He wasn't so sure so far, but after what he saw yesterday, he was not a hundred percent on if even the same fundamental laws applied to this place.

"_I made a fire, I used a wild hare, the people here from what I can see are humans like me. I managed to escape last night…But now, I have to find more information on where I am. I don't know what is real anymore… but just the fact that I am here could be magic."_ Saito thought to himself for a moment as he crouched and stared across the pond.

Saito had been deeply contemplating this before he moved towards the edge of the woods. Once he arrived back on the edge of the road, he made sure that the road was not being guarded which unfortunately it was. Fortunately, it was a single woman dressed in a dark cloak. She was heading somewhere down the road. She wasn't really a guard, but she was a traveler… probably. Saito decided to merely follow the road at the edge of the tree line to follow the woman towards her destination.

"_I hope this doesn't take too long."_ Saito muttered to himself unintelligibly as he stayed on the side of the road and keep to the vegetation around him.

**-0-**

**Tristainian Magic Academy, Tabitha, 8:00 AM**

"Yep!" Sylphid had cheerfully replied by what seemed to be telepathy.

"… I'll report that… I don't think it is necessary to follow him anymore…" Tabitha said quietly while continuing to read and petting the hovering dragon.

"Okay...! So, what are you reading?" Sylphid asked, trying to find something to talk about with her blue haired master.

Tabitha stopped to look at her familiar. She stared into her big eyes almost longingly. She had friends at the school but she couldn't trust any of them, not with her secrets but…she was almost delighted at the thought that her lifelong companion could listen and respond. She realized that she should become closer with her familiar first before trusting her even if they would be together for the rest of her life, but how to go about that…?

"It's a book…" Tabitha said looking dead center into her familiar.

There was silence for several seconds before Sylphid burst out giggling and almost losing control of her flight when she realized that Tabitha meant her to take that seriously.

**-0-**

**Academy Servant's Quarters, Siesta, 8:03 AM**

Siesta had been looking at a letter she had received last night. It was from her relatives in eastern Tristania. Apparently a noble had been scamming them out of money and where not doing so well. Although the place was not of…. refined cultured, but they were hard workers.

Siesta put down the letter onto her nightstand. She sighed and began to sit up from her bed. She couldn't help them since she was also low on money herself. Then again, who wasn't broke on money? Yes some commoners where rich, but even the richest of them had only half or less of what even lower nobles had.

Nobles… Siesta always wondered what it would be like if nobles didn't have magic._ "Be nothing but filth like us_." But would they think of themselves as noble anyways? No, that would be ridiculous. With no magic then there is nothing logical that would separate them as commoners.

Siesta needed to prepare for the rest of the day. So, she decided to clean herself up a bit before starting the new day.

**-0-**

**Tristainian Countryside, Saito, 9:00am**

Saito had been left to think while he finished stalking the woman to the next detail of civilization. From the look of the road he must be getting closer to some sort of settlement. The dirt roads where becoming more well-structured. They had more salted earth and wider spread lanes. That and there was more local activity. This included several wagons carrying batches of wheat and a carriage that were all going down smaller country roads. But they were all coming from the direction he was going in so he should be going the right way.

"_I should probably keep staying off the road; I don't want to seem suspicious."_ It was then that Saito realized how strange his attire must have seemed (as recalling from the events from yesterday at the Tristainian Magic Academy). His ghilie suit must especially be on the strange side, with his M91 sniper rifle marking him dangerous if he is seen with it. But there was no way he was parting with his ghilie suit. Finding something with enough hide for a leather jacket could take hours or days. That and he had no idea what these people were using for currency other than paper money.

"_Well, I guess I'll have to settle for the hard route."_ Saito thought to himself as he proceeded to hide behind a haystack, which horribly matched his grassland color and patterns of his ghilie suit. He now had his M91 slung on his right shoulder and he didn't have any firearms that were suppressed, even his Browning HP in his right hip holster wasn't suppressed. The only weapon he could use to quietly kill someone was his Black Finished Fallkniven Army Survival Knife that was on his left hip. From what he could count from his ammunition so far, he had fired two shots in this world; leaving him with only four fully loaded magazines left for his M91, and two fully loaded magazines for his Browning HP (with the magazine included in the gun). But before he could make any other checkups on his weapons, he heard a series of unwary footsteps nearby.

The footsteps sounded like the person was unaware of Saito's presence as it kept coming casually in the direction of the hay bale. Just before long as the footsteps got extremely close to him, a farming boy at about his age came up to the right opposite corner of the haystack and started bundling more hay from the stack that Saito was hiding behind. The boy was a perfect target for discovering the currency needed to buy stuff. But Saito had one issue just like last night; he has to find someone to obtain the currency on the boy, without killing him. Saito had to come up with other ways to takedown the boy.

He couldn't use his knife; he could actually infect the boy on accident once the boy starts bleeding and with the possibility of dirt and foreign material might spill into the boy's wound. Saito could however use something that he already had on him if he didn't have any weapons; his fist and his body. This gave him the opening of choices for his takedowns; he only knew a certain range of takedown moves against targets if he wanted to kill, but render the victim unconscious if necessary. This laid for his choice of attack, but now he to think up of how to proceed with his move. That was something he had up his mind already, by using his own carelessness with his M91.

He slung his M91 off his right shoulder and he laid the muzzle and exposed barrel onto the hay upwards and at his abrupt decision; he dropped the metal buttplate on the ground and made a blunt thud. The boy that was racking the hay from the bale stopped as soon as he heard the thud and abandoned his work and inspect where it came from. Saito watched the boy come from his left and before the boy could see Saito at the corner of his eyes, Saito took action. Using his selected takedown, he first jabbed the boy in the upper chest with his right hand to daze the boy momentarily and then slap the boy in the face with his right hand again. Then finally, with the boy spun around with his back nearly facing Saito, Saito made his chokehold on the boy.

Saito looped his right arm around the boy's neck and then placed his right hand on top of his left bicep (with his left hand already on top of the boy's hair, and pushing the head down to suffocate the boy). The boy hadn't even cried yet from receiving the attacks as he was now in a sleeper hold under Saito's grip. Saito kept a calm face as he tripped the boy's legs forward and dragging him behind the haystack. To Saito's bewildering as he was now hiding behind the haystack, the boy was trying to pull Saito's right forearm down and try to escape from the headlock. The boy's rough hands barely left any fingerprint marks on Saito's sleeves as he was being strangled unconscious as Saito's grip tightened to quickly knock the boy unconscious.

Under a minute, the boy fell silently limp in Saito's grip and falling unconscious from the lack of oxygen getting to his body. Saito felt the boy's body not responding and decided to check for a pulse as he let go of the headlock before he laid the boy's body into his hands. The boy's body was being stood up with Saito's hands on the boy's back to support his weight under his limp body. Luckily, when Saito put his index fingers on the boy's throat, the boy was still alive as the veins on the neck were still beating normally. After checking the boy's vitals, Saito carelessly let go of the boy and let the body rest into the hay.

Saito arranged the boy's body to look like the boy was taking a morning nap on accident. But before letting the boy could be left to rest, Saito crouched back down and checked the boy's pockets. There was nothing much on the boy, except for a small leather pouch of coins in the boy's left pocket. There were only nine coins in the boy's pouch as Saito could see inside the pouch before securing the pouch back up tightly than usual. Saito stood up and grabbed his M91 and slung it back on his right shoulder before peeking to his right behind the other side of the hay bale. Reluctantly, with nobody in sight, Saito made a close call of another individual nearby before he even thought about dashing through the fields towards another haystack.

Two more lanky farmers were distracted attending to another haystack in the same manner like the boy that Saito knocked unconscious. From Saito's observation, the farmers were moving hay towards a wooden wagon that was 13.9 meters from Saito's position at his 1 o'clock (with the view taken from Saito's head). The farmers were unaware of Saito and the boy's absence…as it may seem at the moment. Saito had no intention to kill any innocent farmers, especially when wielding unsuppressed firearms and carrying the wrong camouflage to discreet his whereabouts. Saito instantly knew that he had to change his location quickly or else he may be spotted by an anonymous farmer out in the field, or giving the farmers nearby enough time to realize the boy's unusual absence. Saito had to back track a little bit from where he came from.

Turning back with the back of his head and body on the haystack, he saw that he was 70 meters from the nearest vegetation and he couldn't just simply dash towards it, he could aggravate his unexpected situation at any moment. And, if that wasn't enough to make his situation worse, his worst thoughts came so sudden from the other famers, "Hey is Kennedy alright? He hasn't come back from the other side of that haystack for some time."

Saito knew that the farmers were talking about the boy that he just knocked unconscious right now, and Saito now had to react quickly to prevent the farmers from discovering him. And in his growing panic, as his response to hide himself, Saito laid onto the ground with his M91 laying directly underneath his stomach. He quietly crawled to the left of the boy's unconscious body and positioned himself to act like a bunch of pestering batch of brush growing from underneath the haystack. Although Saito had no knowledge of agriculture, he knew that he was still out of place no matter what he did. The only hope he had was the lack in knowledge and the level of stupidity in the farmers that would keep him from being detected.

"Kennedy!" The same farmer shouted, "Get your little butt up, we still have a lot of work to do!"

Saito didn't dare move or react any further as the farmer left a moment of silence. Saito didn't even want to take a single breath as the silence hanged throughout the field in response for the farmer boy, who was now named Kennedy. Almost like a Jewish prisoner escaping from a transport train in World War 2, Saito laid faced down in the grass of the farming grounds and laid there motionlessly as he heard the two farmers' approach the haystack. The crunching of their footsteps got closer as the second farmer shouted at a low volume to Kennedy, "Kennedy get up! It's far from bedtime and you should know, there's a lot of work to be…"

The farmer's shout was cut off as the footsteps stop abruptly and, in the just the blink of an eye, the situation turned strikingly unusual. Unknown to Saito as he lay undetected from the farmers, the farmers were becoming growingly worried from the scene of the boy so far. As the farmers came to senses, by analyzing the boy's positioning and the abstract placement of the caving prong used by the boy, the farmers took notice that the boy wasn't sleeping. To the farmers, Kennedy had been killed by some type of fatal blow to the neck, or strangulation.

The first farmer who shouted the boy's name quickly responded to the situation, "Kennedy has been killed in some way by a would-be thief. Quickly, we got to tell the landowner about this before the thief comes back! Come on!"

"I got to agree. Let's move!" the second farmer responded in a slightly frantic tone. The farmers instantly abandoned their tasks and quickly ran towards the landowner of the land. Their footsteps swiftly went in the opposite direction of Saito's position and it gave Saito the moment he needed to finally get away.

When he moved his head up, Saito's heart was beating so badly from the inside of his torso that he thought he was going to have a heart attack while on the run if he didn't control his breathing. The charging handle on the M91 pressed a small concentrated pressure point on Saito's upper chest, and this aggravated his chances momentarily for recovering quickly from his prone position. As a result, Saito started to stand up slowly as if he was partially dazed from running six miles. He nearly tripped onto the boy's legs as Saito stepped back into the haystack before getting a bearing of his current status. He now had to exfiltrate the area immediately before the farmers get the officials on sight about the boy's presumed murder.

With his M91 slung his right shoulder, Saito slid his head to the right from the haystack he was standing behind and looked to see if there were any other farmers in sight. Fortunately, with the fright of the two other farmers, no one else was on sight upon the other farmers discovering the boy's unconscious corpse. Saito turned his head back and looked straight at the way he came to the haystack. He was 70 meters away from the nearest vegetation which was a sycamore tree forest and unnamed light brush. Saito's only way out was to make a mad dash towards the forest and disappear from the scene before truly going into town.

Saito didn't have any other thoughts or anything else to think as he made his final decision. With one deep breath, Saito ran straightforward towards the brush and evaded the scene of his own crime; a nearly fatal homicide of a young boy as old as him. He had no time for his remorse towards his worst feelings of accidently killing the boy by strangulation as he ran for his life into the vegetation in front of him. His ghilie suit provided the correct match for disappearing into the forest immediately upon stepping off the farmland, and just like a shadow in the night; Saito vanishes into the morning vegetation without a trace of his presences left behind.

**-0-**

**Moments Later, 9:51am**

After accomplishing a rather dangerously quick thievery, Saito reverted back to sitting alongside the road in the vegetation, and threw together a plan B to make up for not being able to enter town easily. He was sitting at about 9 o'clock from the dirt road leading into the southeast of town, and according to the amount of traffic passing the road within a half hour interval by Saito, the foot traffic and vehicle traffic were light. Most of the traffic in particular were farmers, peasants, horse (or cattle) and carriages. There wasn't anything intriguing that brought Saito's suspicions to ambush since the past 30 minutes. But so far, Saito has already set up a field of fire and a set of different firing positions when things go mildly or horribly wrong.

His current firing positioning is his first one; positioned 30 meters into the brush and trees to mask his muzzle flash upon the trigger pull. After one or two shots, Saito will reposition towards a second firing position half a meter to his 10 o'clock and take his next firing post near the right of a medium group of Pieris shrubs. His third firing position takes two different routes; in case the situation mellows down, Saito can be able to advance 10 meters forward to his 1 o'clock and make it his final firing position if his targets get weaker. If the situation gets worse for Saito, his third firing position would require him to retreat 50 meters to his 7 o'clock and resume firing at his targets for another minute before being completely forced to hide back into the wildlife. All of this planning was to accomplish one single goal to identify where he is; disable and take a merchant or a noble hostage and demand for identifications and details of the unknown world that he is in.

Saito had a good plan, and he was well prepared to stay in his ambush positioning before he had to pull out for another ambush location to prevent leaving too much of his own man tracks to easily identify his last whereabouts. With his M91 at the ready when needed, Saito was crouched and with his finger above the trigger guard on standby to pull the trigger at any moment. With his ghilie suit, he was practically invisible to the medieval eyes of the unknown people he saw around him (whereas in the modern world, he would be usually found more easily by soldiers equipped with heat-vision or night-vision alike in any combat situations). Practically, he laid low in the vegetation and kept such a quiet profile, that nobody on the road would know he was looking right at them. All what Saito needed to do now was sit and wait for a target to come in his line of sight.

**-0-**

**Author: Well there's the end of the second chapter! Thanks for reading, if you guys have something you think I should add in anything into the story, please leave an idea in the review. Until then, farewell and take care.**


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